No. 39 Company, Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps ? Unfortunately, their surviving war diary - WO 167/1275 only runs September 1939 - April 1940. It would though indicate what they were doing during the 'phoney war'. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C163748 The RE unit do indeed seem to have been called 'Transportation Construction'. It's quite possible that No.39 Coy. AMPC had been working with them. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C163432
Think they mainly had 3 tonners so the good old 4x2 Bedford OY , going by the amount in photos after Dunkirk I would say this is most numerous 3 tonner by May 1940 , Austin K3 's also quite common. Britain was also emptied of civilian Bedford trucks that were impressed into the BEF in 1939/40. Pre-war the 6x4 3 tonner of various makes was the standard lorry but I have a feeling they were not issued on a big scale and they seem to be mainly with specialist units by 1940.
Oh no not more bloody BEF Bedfords ! says the er throng , but its the one behind thats interesting , one of them rare little Morris15cwt radio cars . Craig
A very unusual picture to show a bit of the interior of one of these, but it's an office truck not a radio car.
Small dark picture , but first Thornycroft Amazon crane I have seen in France together with an RAF Albion signal van.
A nice pair of pretty Triumph Tiger 80 ' s ? amongst a yard full of French Contract GMC AFWX 354 searchlight trucks .
I think that only the foreground bike is British and the 'Anstey-link' rear suspension points to Ariel. I don' t know if there is any way of telling whether it was with the BEF as an impressed machine or confiscated in an occupied country. Although Germany barely features in the British factory despatch ledgers during the late 1930s, the Scandinavian countries are represented out of proportion to their population so I'd suspect that there were back-door imports to Germany prior to 1940 too.
Not much change in Ploegsteert , Renault Clios replacing BEF Morris vehicles ,sadly no AOS except PASS but Morris Quads obviously mean an artillery unit. Craig
Two more vehicles... no mentioning of a location though. This first one could be in the region of the 'Monts des Cats'/'Mont Noir'/'Mont Kemel'/etc... (= inland from Dunkerque along Belgian Border, past Hondschoote, near Poperinghe Belgium) this second one doesn't leave the slightest clue concerning the location Greetz Jean
The Wehrmacht (Heer) car in the second picture has the markings of a Motorcycle unit I think and the '4' for the 4th Company? The markings below the box appear to be the divisional sign for the 10th Panzer Division - the motorcycle unit for this division was the 10th Motorcycle Battalion - the 10th Motorcycle Battalion wasn't formed until January 18th 1941, so that would put this picture in Russia perhaps? The '236' following the Wehrmacht 'WH' identifier would indicate a BMW 236 model, and the series was registered in the Stettin Military District. Quoting Wikipedia: "In March 1941, the division was recalled to Germany, and moved to the border with the Soviet Union in June of that year in preparation for Operation Barbarosa. Once the operation was launched, the division fought in engagements at Minsk, Smolensk, Vyasma, and the Battle of Moscow. It remained in the region during the Russian winter offensive of 1941-1942, holding Juchnow, near Rzhev, against repeated Russian counterattacks from January to April 1942.[6] By 1942, the division had suffered massive casualties and losses, forcing it to be withdrawn to rebuild.
Thanks for your answer Brian... As I am not the vehiclespecialist I didn't even know this last photo depicts a German car... strangly enough I encountered the photo using the keywords 'BEF dunkirk/vehicle' ... of course this doesn't mean that every photo shown as result is actualy related to the used keywords... but based on this search, and thus thinking this was an actual BEF-vehicle, I wanted to share this photo with you Jean
We probably need an expert on the German vehicles used in the 1940 campaign in the west and there is certainly a thread waiting to be started about abandoned French material... By the way, Brian, I really think that those railings and the diagonally scribed concrete design are Northern French. I have no knowledge of the markings though. Thank goodness the BEF was such a straightforward organisation !
Yep, I'm no vehicle expert either - i just googled the markings and checked them in my German Army Handbook - I'm 99% sure about the division if not the type of unit but the number plate is definitely Heer/Wehrmacht and it looks like a BMW 236......